2025 Solent Sunbeam Dainty Dish Race to Cowes – Report
The crew for the 14 Sunbeams taking part in the 2025 Dainty Dish race turned up bright and early at Itchenor SC for an 0830 brief and a10am start on Friday 1 August 2025. It was the last Friday of the first week of Junior Fortnight and there were decorations from the previous night’s party still adorning the bandstand. The staging was busy with parents and juniors rigging their boats to the sounds of the 70s, which for some reason was the music of choice. None of the Sunbeamers were complaining, indeed some were a bit misty eyed.
A straightforward briefing, for once with no questions about the colours of the mooring buoys due to the new finish point at Cowes Corinthian racing mark to the East of the moorings. Grey Seal was to act as support boat for the passage over, Sarita was on the hammerhead to load bags and Graham’s launch Claire was ready to act as committee boat in the area to the south of Park. All Sunbeams left the moorings in time to get down on the end of the ebb to the start area where Graham had used the whole width of the channel for a start line that was biased to favour the downwind end to attract the fleet along the whole length of the line. The wind from the north west allowed spinnakers to be carried down the channel and the fleet was sent on their way at 10am without mishap. (Photo below by Vicky Jones – fleet near Thorney mark)
Near the Thorney mark the boats hardened up past Lowles and Johns Folly heading west towards John Davis and keeping clear of the Stocker bank just to the north; no customers for Grey Seal to tow off. Having rounded the Winner marks, spinnakers were rehoisted for the leg down to West Pole beacon. Progress was rapid and the Bar beacon halfway down the channel was passed at around 10:30am. At West Pole, a long starboard tack was started heading for the Winner buoy and beyond to pass No Man’s Land fort to starboard. The sea state across Hayling bay was confused with the odd lump of water coming onboard, reminding crews they were no longer in the harbour. Chimet shows the windspeed at 13 gusting 16 kts and from the NE. Peggy was the only boat to try the route along the north (mainland) shore via the Dolphins, of which more later. For the rest of the fleet, once through the forts, the options were to gradually head for the Island shore and tidal relief in Osborne Bay, or to plug the tide down the rhumb line. The sea state improved slightly with occasional large wash from passing shipping. The wind remained in the 12 kts to 15 kts range and moved around 20 degrees around a mean of 340 with the gusts appearing to free boats slightly. The sun came and went but it was a bit of a slog with boats next to each other appearing to be connected by elastic with one then the other opening and closing the gap between them.
So how did the leaders fare? Misty, Joy and Sky all started towards the pin with the line bias and wind on the beam allowing them to keep their wind clear as they angled up towards and ahead of the fleet to windward. Holding on to the early lead allowed them to pull away slightly down the channel to West Pole, and the windward leg to the Winner buoy gave little opportunity for the following pack to catchup. Sky overtook Joy on the leg to the forts and then took a more direct line than the other two leading boats towards Castle point, with Joy following Misty into the tidal relief off the north shore of the island. At Fishbourne, Sky was level with Misty and about half a mile to the north with the likelihood of no or fewer tacks required to get round Castle point. However, the lack of tide, and possible counter eddy in Osborne bay, allowed Misty to pull ahead sufficiently to compensate for the few tacks necessary to get round the headland and she finished first at Cowes Corinthian racing mark, with Sky second. As for Peggy, who had rounded the Winner buoy near the tail end of the fleet, a good dose of lee bow allowed them to reach the Dolphins with little time spent on port tack. Heading first for Gilkicker and then bearing off to come west over the Ryde Middle bank, at one point they were looking very good, but crossing the tide to Cowes Corinthian sadly put paid to a dramatic result for the Vice Captain; Peggy still finished 3rd just ahead of 4th placed Joy.
All in all, an uneventful Dainty Dish race with the Solent showing that the tide is usually the most important factor in a course of any length, but our first three boats all dealt with the tide in different ways! All boats finished within 4 hours. Some boats managed to sail from the start to finish and to their Cowes mooring without once tacking.
Results: 1st Misty; 2nd Sky; 3rd Peggy and 4th Joy